I’m not sure about you but it wasn’t until flipping over the calendar to February did I feel like 2024 had actually arrived. There’s something so special about those slow summer holidays, waking up with nowhere to rush to and no plans in place. You know you're relaxed when you have no concept of what day of the week it is and the biggest decision to make is whether to ride the bikes or walk to the coffee shop. That’s how we spent the best part of our holidays between the bush and the beach. It was slow and simple but the more I journey through this life with four little ones in tow, the more think it's exactly the way it should be.
I often wonder, is the rushing around all worth it? Is that why the days and the years are passing us by so quickly because we are quite simply filling every minute of our day with an outside school activity or something of the like? It’s quite a common occurrence on our trips to the shops to have some kind folk offer to push the trolley over to my car while I have one child in a baby carrier and the other two sitting in the trolley. If I had a dollar for every time those kind strangers say, ‘goodness me darl, you’ve got your hands full haven’t you!” I can nearly guarantee what comes next…it’s something along the lines of “I know it’s hard for you to imagine this, but these little people of yours will be all grown up before you know it and you will be wishing and wanting these days back, so please do enjoy them!”
I love hearing this, it’s a gentle reminder to stop! Stop rushing to get to the next thing and to genuinely enjoy these simple moments that fill our everyday. It’s the power of advice from the older generation to the next, someone who has lived it and knows exactly what they are talking about. Ritu Ghatourey once said “The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.”
When it was time to bid farewell to those summer holidays, the lunchboxes got brought back out of the drawers, the new schoolbooks and pencils were labelled and packed neatly into the school bag ready for the return to routine. Starting the year is starting with some different intentions for our family. Saying no to the busyness and saying yes to the slow, simple, nameless moments. Enjoying these years and embracing the season that we are in. Letting the kids unpack the trolley for me, having their little chats with the local butcher and throwing some loose change in the guide dog statue at the entrance of the shops. These are the nameless moments that I will never rush them on thanks to the wonderful advice of those that have been before and are kind enough to share their wisdom.